One of the Alliance’s most important missions is to advocate for aging research by working with legislators, health experts and other like-minded organizations. Our public policy efforts are summarized here.

Every day millions of Americans and their loved ones face the challenge of dealing with conditions such as stroke, heart valve disease, Alzheimer's disease, and others. Learn their personal stories and why they say medical research matters.

Alliance for Aging Research (Alliance) President and CEO Susan Peschin, MHS, has issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump's decision to retain Dr. Francis Collins as National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director.

The Alliance for Aging Research’s President and CEO Susan Peschin, MHS, has released the following statement in response to the Fiscal Year 2017 spending package released today, which provides $34.1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The Alliance for Aging Research applauds the Obama Administration for reprogramming $50 million from the current budget to Alzheimer’s disease and pledging an additional $80 million for Alzheimer’s research in the next budget cycle.

A group of almost 800 organizations, including the Alliance for Aging Research, sent this letter to leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to urge them "to increase the fiscal year (FY) 2018 302(b) subcommittee allocation" for programs and services administered by the departments and agencies under Labor-HHS’s jurisdiction.

This is testimony from the Alliance for Aging regarding the Fiscal Year 2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations process. It notes that "there is an ever-increasing need for sustained investment in the NIH, CDC, and AHRQ. Our testimony will highlight critical health concerns that disproportionately affect older adults and initiatives supported by our federal health agencies that are addressing them."

The Alliance for Aging Research joined other organizations in calling on President Donald J. Trump to consider of the vital role of the federal public health and biomedical research workforce to the United States as he considers long-term policy regarding federal hiring.

This letter from various organizations, including the Alliance for Aging Research, to various members of the U.S. House of Representatives acknowledged them for "including in the 21st Century Cures Act an additional $10 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over five years."

The Alliance for Aging Research signed onto a letter requesting the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and other relevant NIH agencies, institutes, and offices provide technical assistance and otherwise support an effort to improve prevention of AFib-related stroke in older persons.

Daniel Perry of the Alliance for Aging Research, and Carol Schutz of the Gerontological Society of America, submitted this testimony on behalf of the Friends of the National Institute on Aging. The testimony called for a 6.7% overall increase for the National Institutes of Health for FY 2008 and additional resources for NIA in order to avoid continued cuts in existing grants and to sustain training and research opportunities for new investigators.

Daniel Perry of the Alliance for Aging Research, and Carol Schutz of the Gerontological Society of America, submitted this testimony on behalf of the Friends of the National Institute on Aging. The testimony called for a 5% overall increase for the National Institutes of Health for FY 2007 and additional resources for NIA in order to avoid an 18% cut in existing grants and to sustain training and research opportunities for new investigators.

The Alliance for Aging Research authored a letter that was signed by 79 other patient and research nonprofit organizations, individual researchers, and companies urging President-elect Donald Trump to retain Dr. Francis Collins as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in his administration.

The Senate today approved landmark legislation overhauling the development of medical treatments and cures for patients, which represents the culmination of a multi-year, bipartisan initiative in Congress. Here is a statement from Alliance President and CEO Sue Peschin.

The Trans-NIH GeroScience Interest Group (GSIG) will launch its 2016-2017 GSIG seminar series this Thursday at the NIH campus. The first GSIG seminar, titled “From the Human Genome Project to Precision Medicine: A Journey to Advance Human Health,” will be led by Dr. Eric Green, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

Today, at the Rally for Medical Research in Washington, D.C., Alliance president and CEO Susan Peschin, MHS, introduced a new video that shares the moving stories of patients and their loved ones who have taken on the challenge of living with diseases and conditions such as heart disease, chronic pain, and stroke.

This Sunday, November 29 at 9 p.m. ET, the National Geographic Channel will debut an important special, The Age of Aging. Directed by Ron Howard, it highlights the pioneering research dedicated to extending our healthy years of life, or healthspan.

The 21st Century Cures Act represents a positive change in how American biomedical research will be conducted and streamlines the processes intended to deliver new medical cures and treatment to patients.

The Friends of the National Institute on Aging has sent a letter to President Obama requesting an increase of $500 million to support biomedical, behavioral and social sciences aging research efforts at the National Institutes of Health for fiscal year 2016.

U.S. primary elections have taken down a fierce champion of medical research. For all of us who count on cures and treatments for the diseases that shorten and stunt human lives, the absence of Arlen Specter from the U.S. Senate will be deeply felt.

In response to President Obama’s March 9th Executive Order lifting the Bush Administration’s restrictions on stem cell research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has issued draft guidelines on the federal funding of this research. The public comment period for the draft is open through May 26th so there’s still time to have your voice heard!

While the study of the science behind aging is not new, it has only recently become organized and recognized enough to warrant its own name—geroscience. Geroscience is a field that aims to understand the relationship between aging and age-related disease. Geroscientists and their supporters believe that this relationship is the key to finding new ways to prevent, slow, and cure the diseases that disproportionately impact us as we grow older. Scientists now generally agree that aging—and the disease and dysfunction that comes with it—is changeable and capable of being slowed.

When purchasing a home, many couples experience a rollercoaster ride of emotions stemming from the numerous decisions they must make together—decisions that affect each other and their future. From choosing a preferred house style, to coming up with a list of “must have” features, the negotiations can seem endless, and a compromise can be daunting.

The country did not go over the "fiscal cliff" thanks to the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), which was passed by Congress on New Year’s Day. While fears loomed that lawmakers would fail to act in time, ATRA addressed the expiration of numerous tax credits, raised some revenue, and temporarily delayed automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect on December 31, 2012. When ATRA became law America earned a temporary reprieve from imminent economic catastrophe. However, our health and personal economic security may still suffer from the fallout resulting from actions taken by policymakers struggling to find a more permanent solution to the nation’s fiscal woes.

Last summer, lawmakers were not just feeling the heat of the August sun in Washington when Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011(BCA). Under pressure to raise the country’s debt ceiling, the BCA allowed the president to do so by up to $2.8 trillion, but only by requiring the deficit to be slashed by $2.3 trillion over the next decade. Not a bad trade, right? Think again. The methods used to make these cuts could take a fat slice out of the federal budget that pays for research to prevent diseases we all fear as we grow older like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and heart disease.

Investigators supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) are on the cusp of research breakthroughs that could enhance their abilities to predict and intervene earlier in the processes of many age-related chronic diseases. In particular, rapid progress in recent years in advancing understanding of the aging process has led to considerable knowledge of how scientists might increase human health in later life by opposing the primary risk factor for most disease of aging—aging itself.

After a long fought battle over how best to structure meaningful health reform legislation, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law in March. Many media sources are reporting on the negative financial impact some health reform provisions might have on the country, but little attention has been focused on positive aspects of the bill that could make a real difference in the lives of many people suffering from, or who will face, serious and life-threatening illnesses.

Investigators supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are on the cusp of research breakthroughs that may enhance their ability to predict and intervene earlier in the processes of many age-related chronic diseases.

It doesn't happen often, but when it comes to boosting funding for medical research, Republicans and Democrats have found a subject on which they all can agree. This rare bipartisan agreement makes it all the more imperative that Congress accelerate its funding of research on diseases that affect older Americans.

Although medical research is a major avenue to healthy aging, it is seriously under-funded. The Clinton Administration's budget for next year includes only a 1.4 percent increase in the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), America's premier federal agency for medical research. That represents the smallest increase in the NIH budget this decade.